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Prototype working ternary device
Quantum computing with qbits and so on is one thing, but what exactly do we stand to gain from a CPU which works on a ternary basis, where each 'bit' is ether yes/no/maybe (or true/false/filenotfound)?
Is it simply an academic exercise or could it change processor design?
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A ternary computer (also called a trinary computer) is a computer that uses ternary logic (three possible values) instead of the more common binary logic (two possible values) in its calculations. Ternary computing has many basic benefits over binary computing. These include: Higher data throughput.
The reason why it is not used extensively in hardware is because technology for binary processing is already established and the implementation of ternary coding is more complicated in computation, although it is used in digital communications where error correction coding is employed [4].
A number represented in base 3 will have fewer digits than the same number in base 2. Perhaps this means computations will be faster, since you have to work with fewer digits.
It's a fundamental trait of computing — but it's not a requirement. It's possible to build a computer that uses three discrete values for computing rather than just two. “Ternary” is the term for this, though you'll sometimes see “trinary” used instead.
What practical use does increasing the number of bits have in general in computing? You get a larger address space and faster operations (like adding or multiplying, the bigger the word size, the faster the code, assuming you use the entire word size, because you only pay the register transfer cost once instead of twice or 3 times).
Increasing the "size" of a bit provides a similar bonus, you can reduce the word size and still maintain the same word range. In addition your computations (might) be cheaper since you apply your algorithm for fewer "digits" (depending on how expensive multiplication is in base 3).
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